This week has been mania and the blog has received the short end of the stick. Thanks for the emails in the interim checking on my existence. I've had 3 separate house guests this week, bringing the grand total to 21 or 22 guests (I lost count somewhere) since moving to NYC mid-May. It seems that there is nothing more coveted than free accommodations in NYC and I've been happy to host everyone. Moving to New York seems to have bridged many different realms of my past - reconnecting with friends from decades ago and I guess catching up after the period of time I lived in Vancouver and was more or less secluded from my previous worlds. NYC does sometimes seem like the center of the planet through which everyone and everything passes.
In addition to guest-o-rama, Halloween was mania. New Yorkers can't do anything in a mellow fashion and really, what city is more secular and celebratory than The Big Apple? Since I live in the West Village, it was incumbent on me to participate in the 34th annual NYC Village Halloween Parade despite any of my actual desires. Plus, what is more relaxing after a long day at work than 2 million spectators and 50,000 parade participants in a Bacchanalian frenzy in your small, quaint 1800's brownstone neighborhood? The Village Halloween Parade is apparently the largest celebration of its kind in the world and has been picked by Festivals International as "The Best Event in the World" for October 31. This year is the first time in the parade's history that it started before dusk since daylight savings time has been extended for an extra week this year. I only saw a small portion of the parade, which was other worldly as far as the costuming. Unbelievable, in fact. There were no plastic masks, homemade rockstar outfits or anything from the domestic tickle trunk. The theme was a giant puppet show, which seemed ironic to me since the streets of New York are like a giant puppet show everyday. I guess this performance was simply making it literal.
Like all great festivities, the true culturally interesting part came afterwards when the already barricaded, police lined streets turned into something akin to a purposeless version of the Paris riots. Domestic disputes, car accidents, vomiting witches and goblins. I even saw a cop get pummeled by an airborne pumpkin. That made me laugh. It was total anarchy with no purpose other than debauchery. The police helicopters hummed in the sky over my apartment late into the night, perhaps until morning.
The next morning on my way to the subway for my daily commute, the streets of the village were eerily silent and covered in more trash than I've ever witnessed outside of a third world country. I missed the boat by not having my camera with me to document the ghostly remains of an event that almost seemed imaginary.
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